MiLo Minis said:
The most important thing to remember and the one that a lot of people don't seem to realize is that backing is a forward movement. Your horse needs to be on the bit, then you ask for forward motion and use an unyielding (even firmer than for a halt) hand so that he comes up against the bit, tucks throwing his weight onto his haunches and backs away from the bit.
Milo, you are of course correct but the reason I always hesitate to bring this up is because it is so easily misunderstood on an internet forum. It's a hard concept to describe! For instance it sounds to me like you are supposed to signal your horse to walk on, then refuse to allow them to go forward until they get so desperate to release the pressure that they "throw their weight onto their haunches" and backpeddle to get away. Now I know this isn't what you are saying but it could sound like that and I'm afraid it might result in a bad case of rearing and even flipping over if misapplied!
You aren't strictly asking for forward
motion at all, you are asking the horse to be forward in the bridle which is something else entirely. Their feet should never move forward, nor should they sway forward and then back up. It is more precisely a motion involving forwardness, not a "forward motion" as layman would understand it. (You know, "going forward?"
: )
I think sometimes it is simpler to describe that the back should be a clear diagonal gait, just like going forward. The front and opposite rear hooves should lift cleanly and move back in diagonal pairs, with the neck lowered and back raised to push back into the harness. The horse should show submission to the bit although not fear of it and look relaxed and happy to move back. He should stop as soon as you release the cue.
Again, just to avoid misunderstandings- I agree with you Milo. I know what you mean! I'm just rephrasing in hopes of avoiding misinterpretations.
The reason you leave backing to the last to teach a harness horse is so that he doesn't attempt to use it as an evasion during his early training. An uncontrolled backing horse in harness is dangerous.
Exactly.
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Susanne, there is a difference in the two kinds of backing. Backing a naughty horse in hand by using offended body language is pushing them out of your space and making them give ground to you, which reinforces your position as the "lead mare."
: The punishment is being chased down the pecking order not the actual act of backing up. You use a completely different set of body language and a verbal cue to train the backup and the horses know it isn't at all the same thing. One is "Get out of my way any way you can!" and the other is "Please step back now. Again. Good boy."
In riding I will sometimes use a backup as a reprimand. Only on a horse who is solid on all their basic commands, and only when they are (for instance) falling apart on their trot to canter transitions, but I use it. I will stop them gently but firmly, wait half a heartbeat, then ask firmly for a backup of a few steps. Then I stop and let them think about it for a moment and ask again for the transition. The backing, if done properly without anger or yanking or excessive speed, helps to collect their hindquarters under them and round their backs up as well as letting them know they need to pay attention and not just rush blindly forward. But when I started driving I quickly decided it wasn't fair whether or not they'd been naughty to ask the horse to try and suddenly stop all the weight of the cart, shove it backwards, and then go sharply forwards again. It would be more likely to damage and stress the horse's body than produce any improvement in rounding, and to avoid that it would have to be done so gradually that they wouldn't realize the two events were related anyway. Later I learned about the evasion thing but I never allow my horses to back off the bit anyway. Everything is, as Milo said, forward! LOL
The one time I did finally use a driven backup as a punishment was when I got sick and tired of Kody's new habit of breaking from a lengthened walk to a trot. He knew better but got away with it the first few times and it showed signs of becoming a habit. I finally lost my temper, stopped him abruptly and asked for a back with my hands just stiff enough to let him know he was in trouble and it was not a polite request. You know, he stopped breaking right away! LOL. It wasn't that the backup was an awful punishment, just that it finally got through to him that he'd done something wrong and rushing forward was not what I was asking for.
Disclaimer: I never,
ever yank on my horses' mouths when asking for a back like this. I ask for a whoa in a stern voice, then say "back, back, back" sharply for each of about three steps. My hands are firmer than usual on the reins so instead of a soft elastic squeezing I am assertively requesting a backup NOW, but if I'm doing things right I never become hard-handed; I just take some of the give out of my wrists and fingers. If the horse opens their mouth in protest you are doing something wrong. :nono:
That said, backing up should generally never be used as punishment in driving. Bad idea!
Leia
Edited repeatedly for newly-discovered typos
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: ) that I don't think we'll have too much trouble working on backing, although I am sure it's harder to teach a horse to back in harness with blinders keeping them from seeing backwards, and with asking them to back "into" the cart behind them.
